Ain’t no April Fool: piano evoce ß

Posted on April 2, 2024 by pj

The Japanese Yamaha site posted information about a new app called “piano evoce ß”. I’m going to quote the site as translated by the Google:

This is an AI ensemble app that extracts the vocal part of your song and plays it back along with your performance. Feel free to enjoy playing together with your favorite songs!

Practicing the assigned songs alone will not increase your motivation. I want a session buddy who can arrange things freely! I want to be able to play my favorite songs with chords!

This software is a beta version service released primarily for technical verification and service experiments. We hope to continue to make improvements based on the opinions of our users.

piano evoce ß appears to be the next evolutionary step in the Chord Tracker family:

1. Connect your electronic piano/keyboard to your Mac via MIDI.
2. Analyze your own songs.
3. Start playing! When you play the chord displayed on the screen, the vocal part will follow your performance.

To use piano evoce ß, you need to register for a Yamaha Music ID account (free of charge).

Now, that’s pretty neat. Here’s my guess: Yamaha combined a vocal stem extractor with Chord Tracker. The screens look very similar to Chord Tracker. Given the reference to “service” and the need to have a Yamaha account, the heavy lifting (vocal stem extraction) is performed by Yamaha software running on one of its servers. There’s a bunch of terms and conditions to read and accept — Yamaha and its friggin’ lawyers.

The app has two ways of following the vocal part (quoting the usual minimalist manual):

Gentle tracking mode: This mode gently follows your playing. The high degree of freedom allows you to arrange and play chords. Even if the performance stops in the middle of a song, the tempo will slow down, but playback will not stop. The AI listens to your chords and sense of rhythm, understands your playing pace, and sings in a way that feels natural to the AI. Avoid sudden tempo changes, and try playing together to create an ensemble.
Perfect tracking mode: This mode waits and follows your performance. It will wait until you play at least one note that makes up the correct chord. AI will play according to the timing of your performance. Be sure to play in time with the chord changes.

Can’t wait to try this! I’m guessing it will be available for Clavinova digital pianos and Yamaha arranger keyboards. Bad news for Windows users: “piano evoce ß can be used with macOS 12.0 or higher”. Not a word about Windows.

A few words about my new PSR/Genos styles

Posted on March 11, 2024 by pj

I promised to say a few words about the new styles in my free Performance Style Collection (Version 2).

Motif/MOX, again

Five of the new styles are converted from Motif/MOX Performances:

Bubbly Dub         77  Dub reggae (Long live King Tubby!)
Dresden At Night   91  Chill
Poppyhanger        90  Mid-tempo electronica (minor key best)
See The Show      100  Prog rock (ELP, Yes, Emerson, Wakeman)
Ticking Away      120  Prog rock (Pink Floyd)

In case you’re not hip to Motif/MOX terminology, a Performance is a style-like group of voices and arpeggios (musical phrases). Most of these Performances are available for Montage and MODX, too — load the “MOTIF XF Performances for MONTAGE” library.

“Bubbly Dub” is my homage to King Tubby. Dub is totally under-represented in Yamaha styles. Reggae, yea, but give me those funky effects! If I have a slam on “Bubbly Dub,” it doesn’t go far enough.

“Dresden At Night” and “Poppyhanger” are upbeat electronica. Feel free to tear them apart and use the phrases.

“See The Show” and “Ticking Away” should tickle prog rock fans. “Ticking Away” is obviously based on “Time.” “See The Show” is a mash-up of ELP and Yes. If you figure out how to tame “See The Show,” please let me know.

Swizzle them phrases

Ableton Live always seemed like a natural tool for style assembly. Finally, this dreary winter, I gave Live a try in this role. The end result is six new downtempo and funk styles:

Cool Revibed      85  Downtempo
DownTime          71  Downtempo
Funkin Style     114  Jabo funk 
Slow Walker       75  Downtempo (minor key best)
Slow Walker DJ    75  Downtempo DJ style (chord progression built-in)
Street Genos      90  Hip-hop (needs Vocal Beat Box)

These styles are based on mixed and matched MIDI patterns from various collections. I want to shout out Groove Monkee, Apollo Sound and Equinox Sounds. If you want to do downtempo, chill or the hippity-hop, look at these brands.

Mostly, I banged MIDI loops together in Ableton and adjusted a few notes here and there to put melodic parts into the same scale. “Slow Walker” was a challenge in this regard. Pushing the notes into the same scale took character out of the sound. So, I did a “DJ” style with the original notes/changes cooked in. “Slow Walker DJ” follows the root note, but not the chord type.

“Cool Revibed” has a slightly different process. I started with the rhythm patterns in the Genos “CoolR&B” style and then hung phrases on it like Christmas tree ornaments. Having the rhythm down is a good way to start composition, if the rhythm is inspirational.

As to Live and sound generation, sometimes I started with Live software instruments, got the MIDI patterns going, and found sound-alike Genos patches for the final assembly. Other times, I drove Genos directly from Live, picking out voices and DSP effects by hand in the Genos mixer.

Jam away

I’m a long-time fan of Jean Luc Ponty’s “A Taste For Passion”. I caught Ponty live sometime around 1980 — great concert! Keyboardist Allan Zavod (RIP) was under-recognized for his contributions.

“Sunset Drive” is one of my favorite tracks from the album. The “Sunset Drive” style is a jam-along style with the bass and chords cooked in.

Sunset Drive     136  Jammin' jazz by Jean Luc Ponty (Cm scale)

The style will follow the root note. So, start out in Cm7 and modulate down to Am. Then, up to Cm7, again. Fun, fun, fun!

One of these days, I will give “Beach Girl” the same treatment. Beautiful tunes, all.

Don’t forget, I have additional free content for Yamaha PSR, Tyros and Genos:

Free Performance Styles for PSR/Genos

Posted on March 5, 2024 by pj

Been a while since I’ve posted. 🙂 That means I’ve been busy with a few hunker-down, wintertime projects.

At long last, I pulled together the second version of my “Performance Styles for PSR/Genos” collection. The second version has all of the V1 styles plus a dozen new V2 styles.

The V1 styles were translated from Motif XS/MOX Performances to Tyros/PSR. If you would like to read about the translation process, check these links:

These articles are still a good read if you are interested in creating original styles of your own. There is a short Getting Started With Style Files post, too.

The V1 style files target PSR-S950, which by now is old hat. So, the original V1 styles should be reasonably compatible with any post-S950 arranger.

The V2 style files take the collection into new territory. The V2 styles include contemporary genres like downtempo and make wide use of DSP insert effects. I developed the styles on Genos (gen 1) which supports a single insert effect on each style part. The V2 styles are compatible with Genos2. Some voices and DSP effects may not be supported by earlier arrangers. Genos1 still leads the pack in many dimensions!

Nonetheless, I encourage you to download the new collection. You might need to re-voice a style part or two and maybe redirect the DSP units which are available on your music machine. The styles are SFF1 even though a few new styles use Mega Voice. Being SFF1, you should be able to edit the styles with Mixmaster or any of the wonderful tools created by Jørgen Sørensen. I owe Jørgen a debt of gratitude since his CASM editor, OTS editor and Style Split/Splice programs are essential tools for any style developer.

Download Performance Styles for PSR/Genos (Version 2). The ZIP file includes a README text file. Be sure to check it out.

Genos2: Behind the scenes video

Posted on December 30, 2023 by pj

Yamaha’s Genos2 Story – Behind the scene video is now available on Youtube.

As you might expect, it’s a combination of useful, factual information and sales puffery. So, here is my summary of the actual informational content minus marketing B.S. 🙂

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:04 Martin Harris, R&D Center London
00:03:41 Junichiro Murata, DMI Strategy Planning Group
00:05:25 Stefano Ivan Scarascia, Design Laboratory
00:06:20 Yoshiyuki Hirai, Mechanical Design Group
00:07:53 Ryuichi Izumi, Mechanical Design Group
00:08:29 Tomoya Michiba, Hardware Design Group
00:10:00 Martin Harris, R&D Center London
00:12:45 Kyoko Ohno, Sound Design Group
00:16:08 Taichi Hiyama, Sound Design Group
00:19:19 Ending

R&D Center London is an extension of the Sound Design Group in Japan.

The sound development process is roughly:

Planning which instruments and their playing techniques to develop
Sampling using different microphones and articulations
Mix-down from the different microphones
Denoise the samples
Loop the samples
Map the samples to the keyboard
Sound design (tweak voice parameters, add DSP effects, etc.)

New samples in Genos2: pianos, electric pianos, brass, tuned percussion, orchestral percussion and more. More layers, longer time before a loop.

Genos2 adds Style Dynamic Control: Full energy control over auto-accompaniment. Dynamically adjusts both velocity and volume.

Tilted the main screen to improve visibility by the user. Mitigate sun glare using anti-reflective film. Added LED lights to see the slider position on a dark stage. 360-degree rotating knobs use the set values as the starting point for control. Slider catch function to prevent jumps in value.

Industrial design: Try to adhere to the graceful lines of the original design. Increase visibility of the main screen and subdisplay.

Different shapes and coatings. Increase quality. The biggest problem in mechanical design is to accommodate the protrusions on the upper case (necessitated by the tilted displays). The case is created using two large molds. The top and bottom must be carefully aligned.

The LED lenses are designed to minimize light loss. The lens shape is optimized on the order of 0.1mm and allows light to disperse efficiently.

Electronic design of the audio output required a lot of experimentation. They tried so many different components, they wore out (broke) the PCB! The goal is to present the internal waveforms faithfully without distortion (good trackability). Designs are evaluated by listening and electrical analysis. Listening was performed in venues of different sized. Genos2 includes an USB audio interface.

FM synthesis adds dynamic capabilities. FM has seemless dynamic curve.

When the Yamaha LSI (SWP70) was designed, they wanted multi-timbral tone generation using both AWM and FM voices together to generate sounds.

Super Articulation and Super Articulation 2. SA2 voices use Articulation Element Modeling (AEM) tone generation. [SA2 demonstration] The SA2 voices were almost all recorded in Japan. To honor Japan, the team added Shakuhachi. The acoustic instrument tone seems to be constantly in motion, posing a challenge for sound design. You need to leave the original instruments flavor in the voice without making it intrusive.

Every waveform is evaluated for quality (technical check): presence of noise in the waveform or deficiencies in timbre, style, or voice parameters. Then, the waveform is evaluated musically, i.e., is the processed waveform musically natural? The behavior of an instrument must be realistically reproduced. Finally, there is a consistency check: Do the timbre and style data work together consistently.

Sound designers consider the musical genres to be played. A voice must perform musically whether its played by a musician or an auto-accompaniment style — even when the musician uses the voice in an unexpected way. Playing techniques are taken into consideration to determine the articulates to be sampled.

Genos2 waveform memory is big. It allows all 88 piano notes to be sampled. A little bit of noise in each note adds realism.

The new Genos2 drum samples leave more atmospheric components (a kind of noise) in the sound. A key decision is how much “noise” to leave in.

Genos2: ¿Si o No?

Posted on November 28, 2023 by pj

A bit tardy with my first take on Genos2. I’ve spent waaay too much time on forums and need to get back to work. 🙂

Genos2 information and videos abound on the Web, so I’ll be skipping a lot of details here. I recommend getting your information from reputable sources, not the self-appointed experts on Internet forums. Given the misinformation that I’ve seen, I don’t think some of these people have ever touched an arranger keyboard, let alone Genos1 or Genos2.

It will be some time until I can actually get hands-on with Genos2. That’s a disadvantage of living in North America where guitar is king. When I do play Genos2, I will post comments. So, please take my initial opinions with a grain of salt.

Genos2 leaves me feeling a bit like Dr. Jekyll and a little bit Mr. Hyde, depending upon Genos2 being your first top-of-the-line (TOTL) arranger or an upgrade from Genos1.

Let’s hear from the kindly doctor first.

Your first TOTL

If Genos2 is your first TOTL arranger, you’re on good ground. Genos2 builds on the solid Genos1 foundation. Genos1 has been a reliable, great sounding instrument and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in G2.

Genos2 adds many new voices and styles to Genos1. (Some of the Genos1 voices and styles are available with the Genos2 Complete Pack, free after registration.) I made a list of the new Genos2 voices.

Genos2 significantly improves on the G1 CFX piano. It has more strike (velocity) levels, now 7 levels up from 5. The sustain is longer (doubled). Check out this video which focuses on Genos2 pianos. The G2 piano sounds are lovely.

Like the Montage upgrade, G2 received “character pianos“:

Character piano: A rough and wooly sound (think “ragtime”)
Cinematic piano: An air of mystery about it (think “Halloween”)
Felt piano: A sound softened by felt woven in the strings (think “Titanic”)

Unlike Montage M, all of these pianos are enriched by the stunning, new REVelation reverb from Steinberg. Genos2 also adds a new multi-band compressor.

Genos2 adds Ambient Drums to the original Genos1 Revo drums. (Ignore the Internet misinformation about Revo being dropped.) Ambient Drums mix close-mic’ed samples with room ambience samples consistent with sampling techniques employed in modern percussion VST libraries. You (or the style) dial in the amount of ambience, thereby adjusting the sense of space in the sound.

One shouldn’t forget the new true FM voices. Yamaha enabled the FM-X hardware in the Genos2 tone generators. [BTW, the FM hardware is locked away in Genos1.] Now you get real dynamic FM sound. Genos2 does not support FM voice editing, but, really, how people are going to create FM voices from scratch? Not to mention how notoriously hard it is to get one’s mind around FM programming. A free DX7 expansion pack awaits those who register. With a little deep diving, I can safely say there is real FM-X in there.

No doubt, Yamaha have produced new styles and revamped old styles to use the new effects and voices. There are now 800 styles, which in itself, is a staggering big MIDI phrase library.

Ambient Drums illustrate the Genos ethos — producing a refined, “like the recording” sound. I’m sure this gives hobby players a lot of pride and pleasure. I like it because I can produce great sounding demos without a lot of effort!

Genos2 includes other enhancements worth mentioning. The style Dynamics Control improves on G1 dynamic control. The new Dynamics Control provides knob control over the volume and velocity of style parts, letting the backing band more realistically sit out or dig in. The front panel adds two more assignable buttons (3 total above the articulation buttons) and two buttons to control the ever-useful Chord Looper.

If you don’t own a Genos and want one, buy it. Given Yamaha’s long development cycles, it may be five or six years before the next major Genos release.

Upgrade to Genos2?

The decision to upgrade from the previous model is always a difficult one, whether its Montage M, MODX+, Genos2, Korg, Roland, whatever. There might be a few of us who are made of money, but most of us punters need to lay off old gear in order to afford the new. If it’s a trade-in or a re-sell, we’re going to lose value and we’re going to pony up cash for the shiny new object. In the case of a premium product like Genos2 or Montage M, the delta might be $1,800 or more. And then there’s the hassle of dealing with the villains on Craigslist or Ray’s Music Exchange.

This is when and where Mr. Hyde makes an entrance.

The decision to upgrade is a personal decision and choice. Objectively, does the delta enable us to meet our personal musical goals, that is, fulfill a genuine need? Otherwise, I cannot objectively account for enthusiasm, fan-dom, FOMO, or just plain desire (G.A.S.).

Which leads me to…

Generation skipping

When it comes to electronics, I’m a “generation skipper.” I rarely buy the next generation of anything. I don’t find the value proposition — increased utility per upgrade dollars — to be enough to justify a purchase.

So it is with Genos2. My Genos1 is still a rockin’ keyboard. It isn’t used up in the economic sense.

By the way, now is a terrific time to buy a new old stock (NOS) or re-sale Genos1. North American retailers have not sold through and are selling NOS Genos1 at a reduced price. [I took my own advice and have made a deal for an NOS Clavinova CSP-170.] European customers are switching to Genos2 in droves and they need to unload their Genos1 keyboards in order to fund a new G2. Buy a reduced price Genos1 now and upgrade to a Genos3 later. Many different ways to make a play.

Need over want

What would it have taken to make me decide otherwise and buy Genos2? Or, letting Mr. Hyde loose, what is Genos2 missing?

Right now, my most pressing need is an 88-key piano action keyboard for practice. I need to raise my piano skills and I need to transition to an acoustic grand when necessary. The FSX action is not up to snuff — I’ve tried with Genos1.

Compared to Clavinova (for example), Genos2 is missing:

Even Montage M8X left me up short.

What really disappointed me is the other biggee — no Virtual Circuit Modeling (VCM) rotary organ simulator. This is a big omission as far as upgrade is concerned. With two really fine synth-action instruments (Genos1 and MODX) in hand, I just can’t justify an upgrade to G2 based on what G2 is and isn’t today.

Yamaha product silos

Looking at Montage M and Genos2, Yamaha’s product silos get in the way of making all-rounder keyboards. Yamaha product groups protect their turf and abhor cannibalized sales. This attitude and market strategy drives a lot of customers crazy, including me.

Reading the forums, there is demand for an 88-key Genos. The P-S500 is not enough to scratch the arranger itch, DGX-670 is feature-light and CVP prices are way out of sight.

Yamaha need to pick up the pace and roll out new features faster. Will Genos2 people need to wait five years to get the VCM rotary sim, Bösendorfer piano, or VRM? At age 72, I’ve got about 11 years left (male, life expectancy, U.S.A.) Let’s get going, Yamaha! 🙂 My time is running out…

Genos 2 is here

Posted on November 15, 2023 by pj

Key features:

Steinberg’s REVelation reverb
Over 1900 voices
Over 800 styles
Style dynamics control
Ambient drums
FM synthesis
Three assignable buttons (above the 3 articulation buttons)
Updated playlist features and interface
Bluetooth audio
Support by Rec’N’Share app
HDMI port
Front panel buttons for Chord Looper
MIDI song to style converter (computer-based application)

Let’s get the bad news over first: $6,599 USD (MSRP), $5,700 (MAP).

Style dynamics control: Increase the energy and dynamics of each style section in real-time by turning a knob. Instrument parts may be added or subtracted by the player with a single gesture. This is similar to the Adaptive Style idea (DGX-670) except the player has explicit control over the busy-ness of the auto-accompaniment.

Ambient drums: Use a live control to adjust the microphone distance from the drums. This adjusts the dry and ambient sound in real-time. The drum sounds have recorded drum ambience.

FM synthesis: Genos2 has both AWM2 and FM synthesis. Yamaha finally unlocked the FM engine in the SWP70! Genos sound designers are still on a 1980’s kick begun in Genos (gen 1). Now we get all of the DX7 classic sounds with real FM. And, of course, layered with anything and everything else.

Styles: Over 200 styles are brand new employing the new voices and dynamic drums. More 80’s: Throwback Pop, 80’s Sunday Pop, 80’s Funky Soul, 80’s Love Song, 80’s Soft Rock, 80’s Dance Pop, 90’s Dream House, Broadway Production, Action Anthem. The 80’s Funky Soul style is cool — especially if the unnecessary orchestration is backed out. Oh, no, more Schlager, but Yamaha do know who butters their bread!

Yamaha have finally improved style creation with the MIDI song to style converter application. I’ll have to take a closer look at this! 🙂 This application lets the user select the measures which are mapped to MAIN, FILL IN, and so forth. It’s about time.

Pianos: The CFX has more dynamic (velocity) layers. A brand new 80’s played-in, “German” character piano. The U1 upright has been updated. Genos2 adds more ethnic instruments, to pursue global sales, no doubt.

New voices: These new voices include Shakuhachi, nylon guitar, pop brass, orchestral brass, steel drums. Martin Harris handled the live stream demos — all very nice and well-played! I’m sure the golden agers are all digging the 90’s “four on the floor.”

There is a new Yamaha web site dedicated to Genos2. What is the URL???

Don’t forget to accessorize. Genos2 is going to maintain backward compatibility to Genos (gen 1). Customers get a five year extended warranty after registration. There are two new Genos2-focused expansion packs: DX7 pack and Genos complete pack. The complete pack contains Genos (gen 1) styles and voices not included in Genos2.

Comments and outstanding questions

I must give credit to Yamaha for re-working the Genos2 Owner’s Manual. The illustrations and descriptions are much improved. Good work! More vendors should pay attention to written documentation. [I’m talking to you, Hammond Suzuki.]

The other bad news for organ-punters like me — Genos2 did not get the new rotary speaker simulator. Genos2 is the same as Genos (gen 1) as far as B-3 organ is concerned.

The screen is tilted, but not tilt-able. The display is touted as “brighter and anti-reflective.”

Yamaha upgraded the CFX piano, but did not give Genos2 Virtual Resonance Modeling. In other words, Yamaha have once again maintained their product line silos. No cannibalization from Clavinova is allowed! The Genos piano collection is good: CFX, character grand, cinematic grand, felt piano, C7, U3 upright, and U1 upright. Still, not as good as Montage M. I love that felt piano, BTW.

The triple pedal is not supported. The Genos2 accessories include the FC4A sustain pedal which does not support half-pedaling. So, I doubt if Genos2 itself supports half-pedaling. The mystery back panel connector is for a subwoofer.

The new FM and ambient voices are described thus:

FM Voices: Characterized by dynamic changes in sound that cannot be achieved with PCM sound sources, since this is using a FM tone generator that is synthetic sound sources.

Ambient Drums, Ambient SFX Voices: Provides realistic and lively drum sounds that are difficult to achieve with DSP effects. When these Voices are used in a selected Style, you can adjust the ratio of wet (reverberant sound) and dry (unprocessed sound) sound in real time by using the Live Control knob/slider to which “Ambience Depth” is assigned.

As to slider behavior:

An LED meter on the right side of each slider displays the current value of the parameter corresponding to the slider, in the current Slider Assign Type. When any slider is operated, LIVE CONTROL view automatically displays the current Slider Assign Type and current values. When the slider’s position and the current parameter value are different, the current parameter value will be held until the slider’s position matches (catches) the value. Once they have matched, the slider’s position will be reflected to the parameter. When additional Slider Assign Types for Organ Flutes Voice are selected, the “catch” behavior described above does not apply and the slider position is always directly reflected.

The Genos2 Data List downloaded as a ZIP file containing an XLS file. What the what? And what is the bloomin’ URL for the Genos2 Web site?

The Yamaha USA site has Genos2 product pages.

Key Genos2 specifications

Keyboard: 76 key, Organ (FSX), Initial Touch/Aftertouch
Main display: TFT Color Wide VGA LCD, 800 × 480 dots, 9 inch
Sub display: VA LCD (LIVE CONTROL View), 512 × 48 dots
Polyphony: 128 for Preset AWM Voices + 128 for Expansion AWM Voices + 128 for FM Voices
Voices: 1,991 Voices + 75 Drum/SFX Kits
Styles: 800 (720 Pro, 69 Session, 11 Free Play)
Expansion voice memory: Approx. 3 GB
Internal memory (USER Drive): Approx. 15 GB
HDMI display: 1280 × 720p max.
Dimensions (W × D × H): 1,234 mm × 456 mm × 151 mm (48-9/16″ × 17-15/16″ × 5-15/16″)
Weight 14.2 kg (31 lb, 5 oz)

Genos2 pre-game

Posted on November 13, 2023 by pj

Gotta say upfront, I don’t have a horse in the race when it comes to Yamaha Genos2 (to be announced Wednesday). Montage M8x, on the other hand, really seized my attention because it potentially could fit a real need — an 88-key piano for home. All of the Montage M extras (AN-X, big sub display, and so forth) would be gravy on the biscuits. In the end, I placed an order for a Clavinova CSP-170. [Still waiting for delivery.]

I’m quite happy with Genos (generation 1) and will be keeping it. The FSX action is pleasant and, oh, the sounds! It’s set up to my taste and needs — no good reason to change horses.

Still, I’m a technologist and I’m anxious to see how Genos2 features point to the future.

Pianos and more pianos

The Genos (gen 1) acoustic piano voices have always left players wanting, especially when compared to Montage (gen 1) and MODX. Genos has been trapped by its XG synthesis and effects architecture. Voices are limited to 8 elements making 18 element CFX an unlikely creation.

Yamaha engineers found a way to break down the 8 element limit in Montage M. A single part now may have up to 128 elements. If Yamaha incorporates the same breakthrough in Genos2 (G2), deep, detailed acoustic piano voices are possible.

The first G2 teaser video features piano slathered in reverb. I don’t think that’s an accident. Given that the lowly Yamaha DGX-670 has a great sounding CFX, it’s time for G2 to get game.

Piano Room and Smart Pianist

What are new piano voices without Yamaha Piano Room? Piano Room is the place to tweeze and tweak piano sounds to your liking. Open the piano lid, adjust brightness, etc.

Along with Piano Room, we might see Smart Pianist support for Genos2. The tablet-based Smart Pianist app provides the capabilities of Piano Room — and more. You can select voices, change settings and save everything in registrations. On the CSP series, the player can select and control auto-accompaniment styles, too. Smart Pianist brings sophisticated audio-to-chord and audio-to-score capabilities, too. Audio-to-score goes beyond the free Chord Tracker app, converting chords into honest to goodness musical notation. The musician can play from a standard chart without needing to know chord theory.

If Yamaha adds Genos2 to Smart Pianist, Genos2 will be the first (true) arranger keyboard with Smart Pianist support. This is a big deal. First released in January 2018, Smart Pianist is now a central, strategic piece in Yamaha’s digital piano ecosystem. Adding Genos2 will cement Smart Pianists role for years to come.

Whither VRM? Virtual Resonance Modeling enhances relatively static digital piano tones with body and string resonance. VRM has been slowly trickling down from high-end Clavinovas to the portable digital piano line. Will Genos2 get VRM Lite or enhanced VRM? Stay tuned.

What’s this?

Enlarged and enhanced G2 pictures show a new connector (?) centered on the rear panel. Along with new acoustic piano voices, will we see the new FC35 triple foot pedal? The FC35 connects through a large multi-pin DIN connector. Perhaps G2’s new connector is for the triple strike pedal. We shall soon see…

Vegas at night

Rotary encoders are another big ask. The second teaser video reveals what are quite likely rotary encoders in place of standard potentiometers. The encoders are surrounded by LEDs denoting the current knob value.

Later video and pictures show LEDs alongside the G2 sliders. It would be neat if the LEDs would show the initial slider value to be manually “caught.” That capability would certainly make it easier to play the drawbars in so-called Organ Flutes mode.

Speaking of drawbars, did G2 get the VCM rotary speaker DSP algorithm?

Tilt, but not tilt-able

The main and sub displays appear to be the same size as Genos (gen 1). The G2 front panel has a few new controls. Since Yamaha needed to remold the top chassis panel, they decided to increase the tilt of the main and sub displays. This change should improve readability, especially when seated at the instrument.

Space is the place

I give Ton on the PSR Tutorial Forum credit for making a great catch.

The first video is titled “REVelation” and the third video is titled “Real ambience.” Coincidentally, there are Cubase plug-in effects with similar names. The Cubase REVerence plug-in lets you import an impulse response from disk.

These spatial reverbs and enhancements are popular creative tools. They are also memory-hungry. Did Yamaha provide bigger DSP RAM on the G2 SWP70s? Could these effect algorithms be ported to Montage M? Remember, the “Real Distortion” guitar effects appeared in Tyros 5 before that were added to Motif XF in update 1.5. Could history repeat?

A new keybed?

Comparing the G2 chassis form against my Genos (gen 1), it looks like Yamaha have remolded the chassis bottom, too. It looks deeper, possibly to accommodate the downward tilt of the displays. Or maybe a new keybed, replacing FSX.

This close-up picture of the G2 keybed has been nagging me. The front face of the white keys appears taller than the FSX in front of me in the studio. The height-to-width ratio of the pictured key is about 0.52; the height-to-width ratio of an actual FSX key is 0.24. Did Yamaha develop a new keybed for Genos2?

Oh, so much is still unknown!

We can see the keys, the box, and the displays. It’s the stuff inside that we can’t see which is unknown and tantalizing. Until Wednesday! Unless some horrible, awful leak happens. 🙂

Yamaha DGX-670: Do you love me?

Posted on June 16, 2023 by pj

Yes, I played one! The pandemic has let up to the point where I can drag my old bod to music stores, again. Fortunately, I haven’t worn out my welcome with local shop owners and clerks (yet).

I don’t intend to run down the DGX-670 features in detail. The Yamaha DGX-670 has been on the market for two+ years and you can find all the details on the Yamaha Web page. Yamaha position the DGX as a “portable grand piano,” part of the “P” line of digital piano products.

And, as of late, my primary interest is in a digital piano that will help me to sharpen my piano skills. I want those skills to translate to the acoustic piano (Petrof acoustic grand) at church.

In that regard, the DGX-670 does not disappoint. The action is Graded Hammer Standard (GHS) and the main piano multi-sample is Yamaha CFX. The 670 has Yamaha’s Virtual Resonance Modeling (VRM) which “reproduces the complicated interaction between both string and soundboard resonance.” The CFX sounds very good through the in-built amplification and speaker system: 2 x 6 Watt amplifier, 2 x (12cm + 5cm) speakers. If I have one immediate slam on the DGX-670, its front panel legends are difficult to read in poor light (black model).

Yamaha DGX-670 digital piano decked out in white

In short, the DGX-670 has me asking, “Do I really need to move up to the Yamaha P-515 digital piano?” This question is more complicated than it sounds, especially when you roll the Yamaha CK88 into the analysis!

The DGX-670 street price is $850 USD versus $1,600 for the P-515. The store which hosted my adventure was prepared to discount the DGX-670 to $750 — that’s half of a P-515. That’s half of a Yamaha CK88, too ($1,500 MAP).

It comes down to personal musical goals — and desire. 🙂 Let’s take each alternative separately.

The P-515 has the Natural Wood X action with escapement (NWX) and the glorious Bösendorfer Imperial. That’s a lot to argue against. The P-515 sound system is more capable: 2 x (15W + 5W biamplified) amplifier, and 2 x (12cm x 6cm) woofer and 2 x 2.5cm dome. The DGX-670 has a very nice 4.3 inch (480 × 272 dots) LCD display that adds a splash of color to Yamaha’s drab black. The P-515 display has less resolution (128 x 64 dots) and is monochrome. [Yamaha should adopt the color display for the P-515 successor].

Those P-515 characteristics would be easy to live with. My biggest beef with the P-515, however, is the paucity and lower quality of its non-piano (AP or EP) sounds. The DGX-670 outstrips the P-515 for non-piano sounds. I quickly compared the DGX-670 voices against my once-beloved, owned and played PSR-S950. The DGX-670 is (roughly) a PSR-S950 without the Organ Flutes drawbar organ. I know these voices and would be very happy to have them in my piano instrument.

As to auto-accompaniment, the DGX-670 is “arranger lite.” It has styles and chord recognition. The styles are now represented in the Style File Format Guitar Edition (SFF GE) form. SFF GE makes the DGX-670 compatible with styles from the mid- and upper-end Yamaha arranger keyboards. A virtual ocean of styles are available at the PSR Tutorial web site as well as a growing community of DGX-670 players on the PSR Tutorial forum.

Yamaha do not say much about P-515 auto-accompaniment other than it’s bass plus drum, and that it follows chords. What is P-515’s chord recognition technique? Is it similar to full keyboard, A.I. recognition? Wish I knew more about this aspect of the P-515…

Regular visitors know that I test drove the Yamaha CK88, too. The CK88 is positioned in Yamaha’s stage keyboard product line. The sound system is comparable to the DGX-670: 2 x 6 Watt amplifier and 2 x (12cm x 6cm) speakers. The CK88 has the lower resolution (128×64 dots) monochrome display.

Piano-wise, the CK88 has the CFX multi-sample and GHS keybed. No VRM. No Bösendorfer. The CKs are well-equipped for drawbar and pipe organ. (The pipe organ multi-samples originated on Genos™.) The DGX-670 — and P-515, for that matter — are relatively deficient in the drawbar and pipe organ department. The CKs have a good selection of other non-piano voices. No Super Articulation. The CKs do not have auto-accompaniment of any kind.

So, if a player doesn’t care about drawbar organ and wants VRM, why not DGX-670 at half the price of a CK88?

At this point, I would be remiss to not mention slab weight:

    DGX-670 weight:  47.1 pounds (21.4kg) 
    P-515 weight:    48.5 pounds (22.0kg) 
    CK88 weight:     28.8 pounds (13.1kg)

Yamaha’s engineers did a remarkable job of slimming the CK88 down to 28.8 pounds. The respectable GHS-equipped P-125 is 26 pounds and I doubt if Yamaha can design a lighter, robust, 88-key GHS keyboard.

I neglected the whole issue of connectivity and app support. Your mileage will vary. The DGX-670 does not have 5-pin DIN MIDI. That might be a deal-breaker for some folks. Smart Pianist does not presently support CK88. Look to Yamaha Soundmondo, instead.

I didn’t work the Yamaha CP88 into the analysis. After its updates, the CP88 is a virtual library of pianos! It’s also $2,600 USD (MAP), $1,000 higher than the three digital pianos in my analysis.

Finally, why did I enjoy playing the DGX-670 GHS and not so much the CK88. Yamaha swears that the GHS action is the same everywhere. If there is an external factor, perhaps it is the insane way trial pianos are set-up in stores? Often, I feel like a contortionist. (Forget reading sheet music in some settings, too.) Playing piano is, after all, a physical act.

If you enjoyed this analysis, please check out my comments about the Yamaha P-S500. I compare the P-S500 against the DGX-670.

Other reviews and comments about digital pianos:

Yamaha keyboards: Which amp (sim) is that?

Posted on June 1, 2023 by pj

While diving into overdrive and distortion effects for drawbar organ, I challenged readers to identify the real-world amplifiers on which Yamaha based its MODX (Montage, Genos) amp simulators. I took my own challenge over a cup of coffee today and made my own list of best guesses.

Yamaha introduced several new amp simulators during the 2013-2014 time-frame. They first appeared in Tyros 5 under the sobriquet “Real Distortion”. Next, they were added to Motif XF by way of the Motif XF OS1.5 update. Since then, the “Real Distortion” effect algorithms have trickled down to mid-level synthesizer and arranger keyboard products.

Without further ado, here are my best guesses:

Tweed Guy         Fender '59 Bassman Tweed (6L6GC, 4x10) 
Boutique DC       Matchless DC-30 (EL84, 2x12) 
US Combo          Fender Twin Blackface (6L6GC, 2x12, Super Twin?) 
Jazz Combo        Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus (Solid state, 2x12) 
US High Gain      Mesa Boogie Mark II or Mark III (6L6GC, 1x12) 
British Lead      Marshall Plexi Super Lead (EL34, 4x12) 
British Combo     Vox AC30 Top Boost (EL84, 1x12 and 2x12) 
British Legend    Marshall JCM 800 Lead (EL34, 4x12) 
Distomp           1980s Yamaha distortion pedals (SHD-100/MBD-100) 
Y-Amp             Yamaha DG series guitar amplifiers and stomp 
Small Stereo      Fender inspired? 
Multi FX          Inspired by the Yamaha DG Stomp

Blake Angelos (Yamaha) wrote an early article which provides important clues. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t spill specific amplifier names.

A real Matchless DC-30 and the Boutique DC amp sim front panel

Better clues come from the faux front panel graphics on display in the Genos Mixer. These skeumorphic images resemble the actual amplifiers which inspired the amp simulators. More definitively, the control names resemble or are identical to the front panel knobs, switches and input channels of the original amps. The Fender-style graphic knobs threw me off at first, until I discovered that the first generations of Mesa/Boogie amps were housed in Fender Princetons.

There are a few inconsistencies, though. The “US Combo” clearly models Fender “blackface” amplifiers, most notably the famous Twin. The Fender Twin has a middle EQ knob, but does not have mid cut, width or sweep controls like the amp sim. Perhaps Yamaha’s software engineers replaced the single middle EQ knob with three other parameters giving great control over the mids? Or, maybe the software engineers had the Fender Super Twin in mind which has a five band EQ at fixed frequencies?

The Small Stereo Amp doesn’t claim any particular ancestor. The speaker types include Twin and Tweed, so maybe there is a Fender influence? Whatever its name, Small Stereo Amp is one of my favorites. It’s like Nando’s hot sauce; I use it anytime I want a little grunge.

The Distomp simulator is a blend of 1980s Yamaha distortion pedals. In particular, it combines controls from the SHD-100 Super Hard Distortion and MBD-100 Multi-Band Distortion pedals. Shred on, dudes.

The Y-Amp is clearly based on Yamaha’s own DG guitar amp series. The DG amplifiers are among the first digital modeling amplifiers. (Nerd note: DSP horsepower is delivered by a Yamaha proprietary DSP6 integrated circuit.) I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the DG amp sims and effect models jumped species and landed in Yamaha keyboard products, too.

Yamaha engineers often return to the same wellspring. The DG Series Amp Models (circa 2012) are:

    1) Lead 1 - Marshall 
    2) Lead 2 - Soldano 
    3) Drive 1 - Fender Bassman 
    4) Drive 2  - Fender Twin 
    5) Crunch 1 - Vox AC30 
    6) Crunch 2 - Matchless 
    7) Clean 1 - Fender Twin Nasal Silverface 
    8) Clean 2 - Fender Twin Full Blackface

The list makes you go, “Hmmm?” “Soldano” brings the Soldano SLO-100 classic to mind.

Before VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) there was DG’s ECM (Electric Circuit Modeling). In this vein, the Y-Amp sim offers a choice of power tube: 6L6GC, EL34, or KT66. These vacuum tubes were used in some of the most famous and collectible guitar amps:

6L6GC: Fender '59 Bassman and Twin, Ampeg B-15, Mesa/Boogie Mark I  
EL34:  Marshall Plexi, DSL 100, Super Lead, Orange 
KT66:  Marshall JTM45 Bluesbreaker

Oddly, Y-Amp does not have an EL84 option (Vox AC30, Matchless DC-30). The KT66 is an improved version of the 6L6. The KT66 was first made in Britain by Marconi-Osram Valve Co. Ltd.

In addition to guitar amplifiers, the DG series included the DG Stomp multi-effects pedal. I can see where the DG Stomp might have inspired the MULTI FX pedal board simulation. The MULTI FX algorithm is a jack of all trades with compression, wah, distortion, phaser, delay and speaker simulation.

Hope you found this fun!

Before leaving, here is my speaker type decoder, once again, based on a little analysis and guess work.

    BS 4x12    British Stack 
    AC 2x12    American Combo 
    AC 1x12    American Combo 
    AC 4x10    American Combo 
    BC 2x12    British Combo 
    AM 4x12    American Modern 
    YC 4x12    Yamaha Combo 
    JC 2x12    Jazz Chorus 
    OC 2x12    Orange Combo 
    OC 1x8     Orange Combo

God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen (ChordPro)

Posted on December 20, 2022 by pj

“God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” by Jon Batiste, Judith Hill, and Stay Human really grooves and I wanted to get in on the fun(k). So, I started with Yamaha Chord Tracker and worked out a similar chord progression.

Wanting to hear the progression and jam on it, I wrote the progression and lyrics in Extended ChordPro:

{title: God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen} 
{Artist: Jon Batiste} 
{Key: Cm} 
{Time: 4/4} 
# Style: JazzGuitarClub 
{stylecode: 3878} 
{Tempo: 120} 

{start_accomp} 

# Intro [Cm][*IA] 

# Verse 1 
God [Cm:2][*MA] rest ye [Bb/D:2] merry, [Eb5:2] gentle [Fm:2] men, 
Let [Gm:2] nothing [Ab:2] you dis- [Gm:2] may. [G7:2][*FA]  
Re- [Cm:2][*MA] member, [Bb/D:2] Christ our [Eb5:2] Sa- [Fm:2] vior was 
[Gm:2] Born on [Ab:2] Christmas [Gm:2][*FA] day. [C7:2]  
To [Fm:2][*MA] save us [Bb:2] all from [Eb5:2] Satan's [AbMaj7:2] pow'r when
 
[Eb5:2] We were [Dm:2] gone a- [Bb/D:2] stray. [Bb:2] 
O [Eb5:2] Ti- [Ab:2] dings of [Dm:2] com- [Gaug:2] fort and  
[Cm:2] Joy, [Fm7:2] Comfort and [Bb7][*FA] joy. 
O [Eb5:2][*MA] Ti- [Ab:2] dings of [Dm:2] com- [Gaug:2][*FA] fort and 

# Funky interlude 

[Cm7:2][*MB] joy. [F:2] ---- [Cm7:2] ---- [F:2] ---- 
[Cm7:2] ---- [F:2] ---- [Cm7:2] ---- [F:2][*FB] ----  

# Ending 
[Cm7-9][*EA] --------

Extended ChordPro adds auto-accompaniment features to the well-known and widely used ChordPro song format. I translated the ChordPro to a Yamaha-compatible auto-accompaniment file and played it on Genos™.

In “God Rest Ye,” you’ll notice the new extensions right away. There are a few more directives like: {stylecode: 3878} and {start_accomp}. Chord symbols are enhanced with a beat count, e.g., “[Cm:2]“, placing chord changes on beats within a measure. Annotations indicate auto-accompaniment section changes. For example, “[*MA]” and “[*FA]” mean “Main section A” and “Fill in A”, respectively.

Getting to hear the progression — not just play it by hand — was a huge help. I found a few places where a minor chord was required instead of a major. Play-back encouraged me to listen critically and to find a few hipper voicings.

If you would like a copy of the Java program (cp2mid) which translates Extended ChordPro to a Yamaha auto-accompaniment Standard MIDI File, here is a pointer to the ZIP file page. If you would like more information, please see the ChordPro auto-accompaniment example and demo and my article with ideas and uses for Extended ChordPro auto-accompaniment.

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Category Archives: PSR/Tyros